Mono‐ and Ditopic Bisfunctionalization of Graphene

For the first time, the bisfunctionalization of graphene by employing two successive reduction and covalent bond forming steps is reported. Bulk functionalization in dispersion and functionalization of individual sheets deposited on surfaces have both been carried out. Whereas in the former case attacks from both sides of the basal plane are possible and can lead to strain‐free architectures, in the latter case, retrofunctionalizations can become important when the corresponding anion of the addend is a sufficiently good leaving group.     

Substrate‐Modulated Reductive Graphene Functionalization

Covalently functionalizing mechanical exfoliated mono‐ and bilayer graphenides with λ‐iodanes led to the discovery that the monolayers supported on a SiO₂ substrate are considerably more reactive than bilayers as demonstrated by statistical Raman spectroscopy/microscopy. Supported by DFT calculations we show that ditopic addend binding leads to much more stable products than the corresponding monotopic reactions as a result of the much lower lattice strain of the reactions products. The chemical nature of the substrate (graphene versus SiO₂) plays a crucial role.